This invention relates to a birthing bed and, more particularly, to a birthing bed equipped with a labor grip mechanism on each side of the bed to assist the mother in creating maximum thrust during the birthing process.
It is widely known to provide labor grip mechanisms on a birthing bed to assist the mother in creating maximum thrust during the birthing process. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,060,327, 6,427,269 and 6,564,405 are cited as three exemplary forms of a labor grip mechanism on a birthing bed. The disclosures in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,427,269 and 6,564,405 owned by the same Assignee that owns the present invention are incorporated herein by reference. It is desirable to simultaneously deploy the labor grip mechanism and to move the labor grip mechanism to a stowed position out of the way when they are not needed.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a labor grip mechanism on both sides of a birthing bed and which are simultaneously movable between a stowed position beneath the patient support and an in-use position wherein the hand grip is oriented above the upper surface of the patient support.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a labor grip mechanism, as aforesaid, wherein the action required to effect a simultaneous deployment of both of the labor grip mechanisms is quick, simple and intuitive.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a labor grip mechanism, as aforesaid, which is durable, steady to the birthing mother thereby psychologically causing the birthing mother to apply strong forces thereto in creating the maximum thrust forces required to assist in the birthing process.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a labor grip mechanism, as aforesaid, wherein the entirety of the labor grip mechanism is stowable wholly beneath the patient support.
The objects and purposes of the invention are met by providing an improved labor grip mechanism on each side of a main frame of a birthing bed, each labor grip mechanism having a post with a free end and a hand grip mounted on the free end. A first mounting construction is provided for slidably supporting the posts for simultaneous movement between a first position wherein the hand grips are stowed underneath the patient support and a second position wherein the hand grips are oriented wholly out from underneath the patient support. A second mounting construction is provided for supporting the posts for simultaneous rotational movement between the second position wherein the hand grips are also oriented in a plane beneath the plane of the patient support and a third position wherein the hand grips are oriented in a plane above the plane of the patient support. A hand grip positioning device is provided for facilitating the simultaneous rotational movement only when the posts are in the aforesaid second or third positions.